The name of the contract is pretty technical, "Isolated Bidirectional DC Converters for Distributed Battery Energy Applications." But Eckhardt, whose technology may soon look down on all of us from the International Space Station, assures me the idea is pretty simple.

On the phone from the airport, he gives me the exclusive details: "The crux of it is, distributed generation," he says.

Just as GridBridge's technology ensures smartgrid backup, so that power can be redirected during a power outage, it's being applied to do the same thing in the aerospace industry. Imagine a plane, he says. You want more than one power generation source.

"We hear about all sorts of things in the news associated with power systems, and sometimes catastrophic results," he says. GridBridge technology provides a backup, redistributing the power in the same way as a smartgrid, just this time it would be in the air. "If you lose one source of power and you need to reroute power very quickly, you can."

And there are a lot of ways NASA could use the technology, be it in exploration probes, rovers or the International Space Station.

The size of NASA's contribution is still being negotiated, "typical grants of this size are more than $100,000," Eckhardt says, and could increase as applications are proven.

Lauren Ohnesorge covers information technology and entrepreneurship for the Triangle Business Journal.

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